The tensile behavior of sapphire whiskers was measured at temperatures ranging from 25–2030°C. At room temperature, the tensile strength of the whiskers is size dependent and varies from several hundred thousand psi to 1 500 000 psi. With increasing temperature the strength decreases and becomes less size dependent. The whiskers exhibit delayed fracture above 630°C, the time to fracture being exponentionally related to the applied stress. Delayed fracture occurs in both hydrogen and oxygen atmospheres and hence is not believed to be due to stress corrosion. The mechanical behavior of the whiskers has been rationalized by assuming that they are essentially dislocation free and that failure occurs by thermally activated crack propagation preceded, at high temperatures, by localized dislocation nucleation.